


Apollo's Gift

by camichats



Category: Marvel
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Mutant Powers, Mutant Sharon Carter, Prophetic Visions, The Avengers (2012) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27765784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Sharon didn't tell anyone about her visions, mostly because she never knew when she'd get one. She'd done pretty well ignoring them for her entire life, but when she gets one of Tony dying, she decides that ignoring it isn't an option.
Relationships: Sharon Carter/Tony Stark
Kudos: 26
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo Mark IV





	Apollo's Gift

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Apollo’s Gift  
> Collaborator: camichats  
> Card Number: 4049  
> Square Filled: R3-Fortune Telling  
> Main Pairing: Sharon Carter/Tony Stark  
> Rating: Teen  
> Major Tags/Warnings/Triggers: None  
> Summary: Sharon didn't tell anyone about her visions, mostly because she never knew when she'd get one. She'd done pretty well ignoring them for her entire life, but when she gets one of Tony dying, she decides that ignoring it isn't an option.   
> Word Count: 2,293

Sharon jerked awake, panting. She'd sweated through the armpits of Tony's shirt that she'd stolen to sleep in. The back of it was probably damp as well, but she couldn't tell for sure. She squeezed her eyes shut as images flashed through her mind. It was hard to make heads or tails of it. It looked... god, like aliens? A vast expanse of space with things that looked like whales moving through the area. A bright flash, like a bomb. Iron Man falling, the arc reactor dark. Or... light? There had been light around the armor. She couldn't tell. Her heart was racing like she'd just run from one end of the Tower to the other. 

She stumbled out of bed, pushing the covers away impatiently as she stumbled for the bathroom. She turned the light on and braced her hands against the counter, the cold marble jolting some wakefulness into her body. With shaking hands, she turned on the faucet, splashing some water on her face. She shivered, realizing too late that she should've waited for the water to warm up first. She stuck her fingers back under, waiting for it to be hot before splashing her face again. 

Tony stumbled in around that time, looking horribly tired and also worried. "You okay?" 

"Bad dream," she said, reaching for the hand towel to pat her face dry. 

"Hell of a dream," he said, frowning in concern. He put a hand on her back. His hand was as hot as a brand. 

She hadn't told him about her mutation-- hadn't seen the point when it was so sporadic and unpredictable. "Yeah," she said numbly. "It was." 

"You want to talk about it?" He leaned heavily against the counter as he asked. He'd been awake for two days straight before falling into bed last night, and it was obvious that he hadn't caught up on that sleep yet. 

Sharon shook her head, curving a hand around Tony’s shoulder. "Thanks. C'mon, let's get back to sleep. I'm fucking exhausted." 

"Okay," Tony mumbled. He didn't do very good covering his worry when he was this tired. 

* * *

Sharon had gotten visions since before she could remember. Her mother had written it off as weird-kid imagination, and for a while, Sharon had thought maybe she was having delusions. The reveal of mutants to the world had gotten rid of that idea, but she also didn't want to go out and join the X-Men or something. She'd already been in Shield by that point, and she wasn't going to throw away a lifelong dream just because she'd had proof that they were powers. Besides, it's not like anyone could teach her how to hone her powers. There was nothing to hone. She had a disjointed dream, and over the following week, it organized itself in her mind to make sense. 

Prophetic dreams. That was her mutation. She'd like it a lot more if it didn't make her feel helpless. They were always horrible events. She'd never been able to figure out how to change them, but she'd also cared more about not appearing suspicious to Shield than really trying. 

She'd once gotten a dream of Mr. and Mrs. Stark dying in an assassination posed as a car crash, and she hadn't done anything to stop it. She'd labeled it a creepy nightmare from her overactive mind, and then she'd kept looking for a nice winter dress she could wear at the party to catch Tony's attention. (They'd never ended up going to the party; Howard and Maria had died two days before, and she spent the next month trying to convince Tony that he was allowed to feel.) 

She didn't even get visions of all important events. It's not like she saw wars being started, and when Tony had been kidnapped in Afghanistan, she hadn't even gotten a whiff of it beforehand. She once had a vision of a coworker’s pet cat dying. 

After getting the vision about space and Iron Man falling, it took time to piece itself together, but it did, details slotting against each other neatly like a jigsaw puzzle. What she saw didn't lend itself to the possibility of sitting along the side and doing nothing: an attack on New York City from a portal. Tony dying. 

* * *

The opportunity, when it came, was like a bolt of lightning. Unmistakable, and impossible to ignore. It must be a part of her powers, because there was no other reason for Coulson to invite Tony to the hellicarrier and for Sharon to _know_ that she couldn't let him go on his own. Normally, they didn't mix work with their personal lives. This time, Sharon couldn't let that slide. 

"Coulson." 

"Hm?" he asked, looking over at her. As usual, his expression was mild, unruffled. 

"I want to be assigned to the hellicarrier crew for the duration of this mission, sir." 

"You're a valuable asset, Agent Thirteen, but we don't need anyone with your skillset on board." 

"And the Black Widow is there for, what exactly, sir? Decoration?" It was a dig about her own insecurities, and she wished that she hadn’t said it as soon as it came out. Agent Romanova was twice as dangerous as she was, and being a sexist dick about the situation wasn’t going to help her. Not to mention that she actually did like her, from the few times they’d interacted. 

"Her presence is required. Classified, need to know." 

"Fury might disagree, but I would say that I need to know." She left 'sir' off this time. No amount of calling him sir was going to make him feel more charitable towards her, and it would only piss her off. 

"Why is that?" 

"You're sending Tony on a mission with aliens, and you don't think I need to be there?" 

As expected, Coulson didn't so much as twitch. "When you married Mr. Stark, you agreed that you would not receive any preferential treatment in your career with Shield. I was under the impression that that's exactly what you wanted, and it's been working well since the beginning." 

"Things have changed, and this isn't to further my career; this is to keep him safe." She wanted to grit her teeth and shake him. How was he not getting this? This had _nothing_ to do with Shield. To hell with Shield and everything they did; she needed for Tony to be safe, and it was as simple as that. 

"I assure you, Mr. Stark will be adequately protected. Not that he needs it, as Iron Man," Coulson added, almost kindly. Tony was far from helpless. 

Sharon stared at him for a moment. If she was going to drop it, now would be the time. The image of Iron Man falling through space and into sky, lifeless, flashed before her eyes. The truth of it happening unless she acted rang true in her chest. She couldn't explain it, but she knew that it was the future. A future she _had_ to change. She smiled at Coulson thinly. "If I won't go as Agent Thirteen, then I'll go as Mrs. Stark. You know that Tony will agree to take me, and you need him too much to make a fuss over it." 

"Playing the billionaire's wife?" 

"I _am_ the billionaire's wife," she said, smile not wavering. It was a card she'd played a hundred times before, but never to Shield, which was probably why Coulson was a little blindsided by her acting this way. "I'll see you tomorrow morning," she said, then turned to follow Tony out of the room. 

* * *

Since she was there as Tony's wife and not a Shield agent, it meant that she faded to the background and took to following Tony when he walked. "Treat me like a bodyguard," she'd said before they left the Tower, and Tony had shrugged but agreed. He didn't introduce her, and he didn't check to see if she was following; he assumed that she was. Sharon hadn't completely dressed for the part of bodyguard, but she wasn't exactly dressed as the pampered wife, either. It was closer to her Shield uniform than anything else, since she knew this was going to get dicey sooner or later. 

Sharon frowned when Rogers got snippy. He'd been confused before, sure, but now his mood was turning sour and she didn't understand it. Even though she'd intimated differently when talking to Coulson, she was no Black Widow; she didn't know what was wrong with him just by thinking about it. 

"Captain," she said, interrupting with a smile that looked fake, "can I speak with you for a moment in the hall?" 

A little thrown, he agreed. 

Sharon held out a hand. "We haven't been introduced. Sharon Carter-Stark." 

"Steve Rogers, ma'am," he said automatically, shaking her hand. It was obvious that he was watching his strength. He probably didn't have much practice with it though, because his touch was featherlight. Then what she said filtered through his brain. "You said... Carter-Stark?" 

"Peggy was my aunt, and I married Tony. How long have you been awake?" she asked, motioning down the hallway in invitation. He started to walk, falling into step beside her as she led the way to the cafeteria; based on what she'd read on his metabolism, it seemed unlikely that he'd ever turn down food. The file Tony'd been given had had every minor detail about waking Steve up and the gym equipment he'd used (and broken) since, but it hadn't actually given any dates. 

"Three weeks, ma'am." 

"Please, call me Sharon. Three weeks," she repeated. "Well, that explains a few things." 

Steve's expression hardened. "I may not be caught up on pop culture or be a genius like your husband, but I am capable of being on this mission." 

No, he wasn't. "I don't doubt it," she said instead, because calling him out on such a massive lie was only going to make him more defensive. "However, I would like to express a certain... imbalance to your emotions that I've noticed. Tony has a habit of getting on people's nerves, but from Aunt Peggy's stories about you, I thought you'd be able to handle it better. For fuck's sake, you had to deal with _Howard_. Tony's a piece of cake compared to him. You don't have to talk to me about it if you don't want to, but you should talk to someone about whatever it is that's bothering you." 

"Nothing's bothering me," Steve said, but she didn't have to be his best friend to know that that was a lie. 

"Hm." She looked at him evenly, letting him know that she didn't believe it. "Look Rogers, if you-" 

"Steve. If I'm calling you by your first name, you might as well call me by mine." 

Sharon blinked. "Alright. Steve, if you want to be miserable, that's your business, but you don't have to be. There are options available to you. People might not think to offer them because you're Captain America and you're a legend, but if you ask, they'll give it. Not that I'm saying you need help," she tacked on belatedly. Long enough of a wait that it was clear she didn't believe it. "Do me a favor, Steve? Don't let Tony bother you. He says a lot of shit, but he's running his mouth; it doesn't mean anything." 

She was pretty sure that Tony didn't remember half of what he said for that very reason. Sometimes what he said was exactly what he thought. Other times, he said things because they were funny, not because he actually agreed with them. And a _lot_ of the time, he talked because he didn't like silence. Being able to play his music as loud as he wanted helped with that when he was working, but since he was sharing a lab space with someone right now, that wasn't an option. Dr. Banner didn't seem to take everything he said that seriously, which was nice, but the same couldn't be said for everyone else. Even Fury didn't get it, and Hill was outwardly very annoyed by him. Sharon didn't understand other people; she tried her best, but sometimes she just didn't get it. 

Steve frowned. "Why would he say what he doesn't mean?" 

"You've never talked just to have something to hear?" she asked, because she figured that would go over better than asking if Steve had ever said something just to see what the other person's reaction was. 

He mulled over that for the rest of the walk. Either he couldn't come up with a response, or he didn't have one. 

"The food's not great," Sharon said as they walked in the cafeteria, "but it's food." 

* * *

Sharon felt like she had changed a lot by forcing her presence on the hellicarrier, but in the end, it didn't matter. What was an averted fight when the end of her vision still came true? Tony went through the portal with a fucking nuke on his back, and when he fell back out, he wasn't flying; he was just falling. She was able to see the helpless ragdoll quality as clearly as if she were right there with him. 

She hadn't been able to change anything. Or if she had, it wasn't anything important. 

After Hulk caught Tony and set him carefully on the ground, the arc reactor restarted and Tony woke with a start. Sharon didn't fool herself into thinking it had anything to do with her presence, but she couldn't describe the bone-deep relief she felt when Tony's hand came up around her as she cried. It felt like something about her changed on a subatomic level. 

She'd been too subtle, before. She wasn't going to make that mistake again. 


End file.
